1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pill dispensers. In particular, the invention described herein relates to a pill dispensing cap assembly mounted onto the neck of a pill container to dispense one pill at a time regardless of shape and size of the pills.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In this field of art there have been numerous attempts to provide a simple pill dispenser means to dispense one pill at a time from a container holding loosely stored pills.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,908 to Thomas et al. teaches a pill dispensing cap assembly device adapted for mounting on the neck of a pill container. The cap assembly includes a plurality of different components, including a rotor member to pick up a pill from the container and transfer it to a dispensing end. The design of the cap was directed towards nitroglycerin tablets and others of similar shape and size. The design would have to be adapted for operation with pills of different shapes and sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,257,029 to Smalley teaches a pill dispenser having a two piece design adapted to engage the neck of a pill container. The user is required to rotate one piece of the design with respect to the other so as to effect dispensing of a pill by a series of successive rotative movements while the container is held upside down.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,838,204 to Snyder teaches a pill dispenser having a single piece design. The dispensing portion is a flat-walled tube of resilient material having a longitudinal slit through which individual pills are manually manipulated therethrough.
While the prior art teaches dispensing of pills one at a time, there are a number of drawbacks to the designs disclosed. Some prior art teaches rotative manipulation of a component of a pill dispenser while other prior art requires considerable amount of manual manipulation by the user to extract a single pill. Many users, some of which having acute arthritic restrictions, are interested in a pill dispenser not having a rotative requirement and a limited amount of intricate manual manipulation. Therefore, it is desired to have a pill dispenser to dispense one pill at a time with limited manual manipulation and rotation of the user's hands. In addition, some of the prior art is restricted in the range of pill shapes and sizes that may be used in any one dispenser. What is desired is a pill dispenser that will work with a wide variety of pill shapes and sizes. Further, the pill container in some instances of the prior art required modification to mount a pill dispensing assembly. It is desired that the pill dispensing assembly be readily mountable on typical pill containers provided at most pharmacies and other off the shelf containers. Furthermore, it is desired for a pill dispenser to have a limited number of components so as to reduce manufacturing and assembly costs of the dispenser.